Thousands of Syrians have taken to the streets across the country since Tuesday, with\u00a0mass rallies featuring open calls for \u201cjihad\u201d against Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The demonstrations erupted after Israel\u2019s parliament passed a law on Monday mandating\u00a0the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis in terror attacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Videos circulating online show protests in at least 12 major Syrian cities. Demonstrators\u00a0waved Syrian and Palestinian flags alongside Hamas and Islamist banners, voiced\u00a0support for Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel, and openly backed Hamas.<\/p>\n
Chants captured on video included:<\/p>\n
\u201cO Abu Obeida, we pledge allegiance to you openly,\u201d referring to Hamas\u2019 military\u00a0spokesman, and<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say Hamas is terrorist \u2014 all of Syria is Hamas,\u201d and<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s attack the Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some cases, protesters were heard chanting:<\/p>\n
\u201cO Jolani, our beloved \u2014 bomb, strike Tel Aviv,\u201d invoking Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa\u2019s nom de guerre from his Al-Qaeda days.<\/p>\n
Crowds were also seen burning Israeli flags and chanting:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe brought down Assad \u2014 now it\u2019s Israel\u2019s turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one widely circulated clip, a member of Syria\u2019s General Security Service forces\u00a0declared:\u00a0\u201cOpen the border for us and we will be in Gaza in less than 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to footage shared on social media, some government-linked figures also\u00a0joined the demonstrations, including Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din\u00a0al-Baba and security forces affiliated with the Defense Ministry, chanting Islamist slogans alongside protesters.<\/p>\n
Hamas military spokesman Abu Obeida praised the protests, saying the terror group is\u00a0confident that \u201cthe masses of our people will one day unite and pave their way to\u00a0liberate Al-Aqsa and the prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aram Aqil, an expert on jihadist groups in Syria, told i24NEWS that these protests\u00a0\u201creflect both broader public sentiment and the influence of organized networks.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that while these groups are currently unlikely to engage Israel directly due to\u00a0their relative weakness, the threat should not be underestimated.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, speaking at Chatham House in London\u00a0on Tuesday, struck a more restrained tone, saying Syria would remain outside any broader conflict unless directly attacked.<\/p>\n
He accused Israel of \u201cdealing with Syria negatively\u201d since his government took power in\u00a0Damascus, citing strikes and troop incursions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried dialogue, both indirect and direct, and reached positive points,\u201d al-Sharaa\u00a0said. \u201cBut the Israelis changed their minds at the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
BREAKING NEWS | Syria stays out of war \u2014 Sharaa: Will not join unless attacked, diplomacy fails | Tuesday, March 31st 2026<\/p>\n
Aqil pointed out that rhetoric inside Damascus is already shifting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the future, Jolani\u2019s message could evolve further into open calls for jihad,\u201d Aqil said.\u00a0\u201cHis supporters are already pushing in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of Syrians have taken to the streets across the country since Tuesday, with\u00a0mass rallies featuring open calls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-373296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}